This is a red-hot show and a great way to kick off to such a historical year in the band’s history. This show is classic seventies dead, with a very tight setlist. The “Good Lovin’ > China Cat Sunflower > Good Lovin’” is definitely a quintessential Pigpen jam. The NFA > GDTRFB > NFA was also ripping. Overall, I thought all versions of the songs were incredible, though notably short. Not a lot of jamming throughout the show but the band definitely makes up for it with the tightness of the 23-song set. Although all the songs were great, another standout song is Jack Straw. Great recording/SBD as well!

I love the "Loser"'s from this era. Keith adds something to it that makes it. so colorful and dimensional. That along with Jerry's vocals AND the single drummer. This is one song where the addition of a second drummer changes the song. I prefer one on that tune. Jack Straw was superb this evening. I love this version I only wish they had the alternating vocals here but Bobby did a good job the music is superb. Great. show to introduce someone to The Grateful Dead for sure.

Dope Tennessee Jed, Jack Straw, great Brown Eyed Girl

My 3rd Dead show, so I'm of course baised. Was on break from living in a Zen Monastery, which also probably made this pretty special.

Classic indeed! This is a perfectly satisfying bare-basics show, with a particularly nice sounding China Cat and a hot jam in Good Lovin'.

This is classic GD. The band sounds great and it is nice to hear Pig with Phil in with the harmonies.
Both Jerry (Ramble on Rose) and Bobby (PITB) shine vocally.
You can't go wrong with Pigpen every 3rd or 4th tune and with Keith settling in on the Piano it frees PIG to concentrate on da blues tunes.
How they get from Good Lovin to China Cat is pretty sweet and soon China pretty much was exclusively followed with a Rider chaser.
"fighting and complaining, when we should be having fun.."

Just so brilliant,grips my heart strings.I just love it.
Being a UK Deadhead,so glad i was pointed to this site.Ace.

High quality recording. Love the Chinatown Shuffle.

yup

I have to agree with a prior reviewer that the top end of the EQ is pretty much missing here. As a result the concert does not have much "presence" in the sound. Personally I don't think the trade-off of losing the tape hiss is worth it. 5 stars for the music and 3 for the sound quality.

thoroughly enjoyable show straight through, though pretty conservative

What a smoker! I haven't been much of a '72 fan until the last few months. This show keeps me yearning for more of what that year has to offer!

Another great show brought to the next level by Pig. There's just a good feel and energy to this one. Ok I'm Pigpen biased, but come on, how can you not love "Next Time" and "Mr. Charlie". Those are good solid Pigpen songs.
The Good Lovin' is what brings it up a notch. This isn't Pig going through the motions. This is Pig using his strengths the rouse the crowd and whip it up. I know everyone's gonna point to earlier shows where he really rips it. No need. I know it's not 1969 anymore. That doesn't mean it's not great.
Take a listen. I loved this show

the boys showing' us that these songs don't just tell us a story of there own, they can be smashed delicately together to form a untraditional arrangement of songs and manipulating the story. “Jump on your pony and ride” Good Lovin' never had such powerful raps.
PIG defining a era.

Okay, Sonic Solutions is great BUT when it's used to remove "tape hiss" it also removes the highs from the cymbals, and the ambience and depth of the music.
Tape hiss is Authentic. Tape was used to record back then and we all should accept it.
Stop marking your territory with feeble attempts at improving something that can't be audibly improved.
You cleaned THE PATINA off.
The antique that was worth $250K is now only $50K. Oops! Don't you watch the antique road show on KQED?
I would like to have a copy of this show BEFORE Sonic Solutions circumcised the the highs off...
5 STAR PERFORMANCE, RECORDING & MIX! A DOWNLOAD MUST HAVE.
Eat, drink be merry and listen to the GRATEFUL DEAD.
Thanks for the love.

Okay, I hate to rain on tommytomato’s parade from more than 2 years ago, but rating this show only “3 stars”? Give me a break!! I don’t think this show is incomplete at all, and there certainly isn’t any tape hiss. Maybe he downloaded a crappy aud, and not this board? After doing the New Year’s show at Winterland from 2 days before, they come back and do this killer show! What other band could do that? Even Bill Graham says that in his Intro. I think opening the show up with Truckin’ sums up the endurance this band was blessed with. No one had endurance like the Dead and Allman Brothers back in the day! I know…I saw them on 6-9-73 and 6-10-73 at RFK Stadium. What a marthon performance! Wasted the whole weekend. LOL
This entire show is amazing! No wonder 1972 was such an incredible year. Look at the way they ended ’71 and started ’72! Loser and Jack Straw are awesome! Certainly one of the better jack Straw’s out there. Bobby’s voice was completely “on” back then! These songs sound so clear, plus they were never drawn out. Look at Playin’ at 6:05 minutes. Too many Playin’ in the Bands were drawn out in the ‘80s & ‘90s. But this one smokes! Same with Sugar Magnolia…
The Good Lovin’ > China Cat > Good Lovin’ is certainly one of the highlights of this show. Not quite sure why Chris U stated that China Cat was a misfire, though. Couldn’t disagree more. And I totally agree with phleshy. This show is worth downloading for the Lovin’ > China > Lovin’ alone! But everything else is solid. When you have El Paso, Big Railroad Blues, and Mexicali Blues in a ’72 show, you know it’s going to be good! This Mexicali Blues absolutely jams! Pigpen was on, as were the rest of the boys. And check out his vocals in Next Time You See Me. Brown Eyed Women is mellow as always. Gotta love Jerry’s voice. Not only was he one of the greatest guitar players of “ALL TIME,” but his voice has been truly missed. Absolutely incomparable!! Check out his vocals on Casey Jones to end the first set – pure and sweet!
This show is definitely a keeper! Don’t pass it up! The 2nd set is absolutely ridiculous! NFA > GDTRFB > NFA is off-the-hook! The guitar and keyboards rule this medley, as do the vocals. Get it now! You won’t be disappointed, whatsoever!
Danny from Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C.
East-Coast Deadhead
rfkrox44@hotmail.com
PEACE-OUT!

This is the stuff folks! That's all there is to say. I discovered this one just playing around with '72 when I first hit the Archive and am glad to see it has the light of day on this list again.

To the reviewer above, maybe your connection isn't quite tip top 'cause I'm having no trouble streaming and it's in the middle of the day. Can you imagine living in San Fran at this time when this sort of "typical" show was considered the norm? Wild. Great instument and vocal sound for the most part. Decent setlist; gotta love GDTRFB.

I concur with all of the below reviews. I'm late to the archive scene where the lucky 36K downloaded this show because you can't hear more than 30 seconds w/out the streaming dropping out for a second.
Having said that, I'm still listen in the wee hours perhaps when net traffic is less.
Cordially,
Perrin

This is a show y'all will listen to more than once...the boyz are friggin ON with this set.
Yes, the hiss of a digitized SB recording is present - but whatever - Very good mix - balanced outputs --- great vocals - as expected from Bill Graham presents...
Great show -- high energy from our favorite Band. This is a keeper if it's not already "from the Vault". The Good Lovin> China> Lovin is a real jem.
we miss you winterland, fillmore -- shoot we miss you jerr, bill, pig, brent, keith - all you guys already onthe A train! There's no going back in time - at least not yet - but wow. Sets like this one bring out feelings of so much joy/ saddness and it...it figgin ROCKS!
archive.org, y'all do good things for us Earthlings - keep it up and thx muchly.

I listened to this last night, for the 1st time in a while, during these cold winter months I find myself delving in deep. Sitting in the living room stoking up and enjoying the fireplace and the Grateful Dead. As I was listening to this, it is very good, they sound spirited and motivated, and I really felt they hit a great moment during the Good Love>China/Rider>Good Love segement, this is really nice!!
I hope you had a chance to download this show, if not at least you have the stream!!

Show incomplete. "Your Love at Home" is missing. Performance is solid, nothing special. Sound is pretty good for the time period. There are better 71's with less tape hiss.

Damn! Lately I find myself gravitating to the November 1971 - May 1972 era. The boys were so tight during this period...so many fresh new tunes. This show is an extension of the December 1971 sound and they continue this sound on through the Europe tour where they perfect their sound. You really can not go wrong with any show from Nov 1971 - May 1972. Get this show now. Sound, setlist, and playing get 5 stars.

Hate to bump anyone's review from the main page but I had to give my two cents. This show is downright solid start to finish but yes, as the others have suggested, the Lovin' > Cat > Lovin' is in fact THE REAL DEAL. I would not hesitate to say that this might be one of the better pieces of musical deadistory. The two segues are sublime and the power with which Pig comes back into the lyrics nearly caused me to bang my steering wheel out of its column. In short, you damn well better get this show.

I'm with josewavo on this one.
In fact, I'd argue that the China Cat was an unfortunate misfire and derailed what could have been an even better Good Lovin'. From the moment they return to the Good Lovin' to the end of the show, the band seems a bit less "into it" than they did before, still trying hard, but a bit worse for wear.
There are many better shows in '72 so between the issues above and the annoying drop-outs noted elsewhere I'm sticking with a 3.

As everyone else has said, the Good Lovin > China Cat and back must be had, it's the whole show. Let it be noted that the setlist is wrong, there is no Know You Rider in there. This show is simply awesome.

I've not heard them all but this Good Lovin' has got to be a contender at least for a top three all time! There are several whole kernals of ideas coming out of a total fusion between Pig and the Band that are totally remarkable. The jam finds its way into China Cat that I don't think anybody expected or even really wanted...listen to how they blast out of it as soon as they can and go back to the Good Lovin, make a respectable attempt to pick up the lost momentum but, of course, the feel had been lost. Still, this is one of the best examples of Pig's vocals coming to terms with Jerry's guitar, a cross between Buddy Guy and Miles Davis. Definitely to be included on my "Good, Better, Best of Pig" collection. There are however at least three tape cuts that break the flow and this is the only reason for not giving it a 5 star rating.

nuf said.

if youre havin a hard time tryin to decide which show to get next, let me make it easy for you. THIS ONE. 72 was by far the best year for the dead(in my opinion) and this show is some hard core indisputable proof. so many gems on this one but my personal favorite has to be jack straw. one of the most heartfelt intense versions i have ever had the pleasure of hearing. the boys are tuned in and turned ON this night. typical of 72, but none the less enjoyable. sound quality A+. set list A+. grateful dead all around, A+++++++++

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? China Cat a misfire? This has to be one of the best China Cats ever. Listen again to Kieth's delightful G Mixolydian-based tinkling during the first forty-five seconds and say it's a misfire. I dare you. This show is a must-have for the Good Lovin>China Cat alone. I love the BE Women also. Did I mention that the sound quality is A++, one of the best quality soundboards I have from ANY year?

Excellent set list covering all bases, flawless sound quality. This could be officially released, as-is.
1972 was a fantastic year for the Dead, this show is another great example.

Previous reviews have said it all. Great song list, fantastically tight playing, nice stage banter, and superb sound board (download in SHN and be patient). No long dark star/other one jams... but good lovin' > china cat at nearly 22 minutes driven on by the wonderful Pigpen - is not bad! 1972 was IMHO the best of the 30 years of the Grateful Dead. There are SO many great shows from 1972 but this one is up there with the best. Definitely in my top 10 of all time

As good a show as they ever played, and the sound is great. The Good Lovin' > China Cat > Good Lovin' really sets this apart from the rest. Pigpen, dressed in blue overalls and cowboy hat, took charge of the band that night. The next to last Bay Area appearence for him. A must have show for sure. 5 stars

For all you jam-a-holics out there don't pass this one up! There really isn't alot of jams in this one (no Dark Star, Other One, short Playin')but the tightness of the band makes up for it. Smokin show from beginning to end with LOTS of energy and great sound makes this a must have for everyone! I agree with the guy who said this is quickly becoming one if his favorites- its becoming one of mine too! Enjoy.

The reason Playin' is so short is because of the fact that it is so freakin' hot that it would have burnt Winterland to the ground had they not stopped when they did.
The Good Lovin'>Chinacat>Good Lovin' simply vibrates with extra-tasty goodness (Jump on ya pony and ride!...). Many, many highlights and a great sounding board. ' 72 was the year of my birth and, not coincidentally, my favorite Dead Year. There are simply too many great shows to make even a top ten...Hell, you would ten for the European Tour alone! You know if they dropped a show this smokin' on the second day of the year all the stars had to be aligned for some seriously heavy cryptical-timewarp voodoo magic. By the way, if you have read this far w/o downloading you have messed up...namaste!

This show is classic 70's DEAD. The sets are tight. Yummy.

this show is very quickly becoming one of my favorite. GOOD LOVIN, nice groovin all the way through.good set list, and sound quality.

Muddy,
I wondered the same thing about a year ago when the GD Hour ran this show. I wrote David Gans about it, and he responded that the source(s) he had did not include this song and that its listing in Deadbase and everywhere else may have been in error. So what we have here might very well be the complete show.

Thanks to the kind fellow who put this up. The quality of the music matches the quality of the sound.But where is the "leave your love at home"? What a shame.

How about an uncensert copy for those of us well over 18...... rippen show I love it

Agree with the others this is red hot
dont forget the rippin nfa>gdr>nfa.... awesome show and I believe this was one of Keith and Donna's first shows in fact Jerry says something about that in the beginning of set I.

Great show all around, but the real prize here is the Good LovinÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ>China Cat>Good Lovin, which is OUTSTANDING. I was having a crap day last weekend when I threw this show on for the 1st time, and by the time the Good Lovin gave way to China Cat my whole perspective had taken an abrupt 180 and I was literally dancing around the room. Do yourself a favor and grab this one fast!

the whole show is tight, but the good lovin->chinacat>good lovin is reason enough to make this show worthy of downloading. quintessential pigpen conducting the jam. guaranteed to make you drive 20 mph faster. fantastic quality.

As with most of the shows on this site, This one is amazing! The sound quality is phenomenal for '72. Set list -- see for yourself. . . Only the Dead could jam this well the day after New Years. There is something magical about Winterland and the Dead knew how to bring it out. Highly recommended.